The end of the Multiverse! Featuring the final SotM expansion, packs of every variant card ever, and the Ultimate Collector's Case!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
A week to go! Three important topics!
about 8 years ago
– Fri, Mar 04, 2016 at 11:10:39 PM
Good morning to all you fantastic Sentinels!
Here we are, a week away from the end of the campaign. We really don’t know what to expect for the final week, but we hope to meet even more wonderful Sentinels to join the ranks of the best backers ever! I’ve been warming up my vocal cords in preparation for the big video naming all of your Sentinels that I will be making in a few weeks. But first, we have three important things to go over in this update, so let’s get to it!
Foil Villain Oversized Cards
We have heard your questions and comments regarding the Foil Collection of Villain Oversized Cards. First, some answers to frequent questions:
Q: What is in the Villain Foil Collection?
A: The same cards that are in the Oversized Villain Pack on our website, but with foil art. Also, rather than being in a plastic pack, it comes in a fancy box with a magnetic closure and spot-foil and spot-UV printing.
Q: Does the Villain Foil Collection include cards for Vengeance villains, Villain of the Multiverse villains, and/or OblivAeon and Scion cards?
A: Nope.
Q: When will the Villain Foil Collection ship?
A: Like the 5th Anniversary Foil Hero Collection, July/August of 2016.
Q: Will the Villain Foil Collection be a product in the long term.
A: No. Like the 5th Anniversary Foil Hero Collection, we will be doing a limited print run of the Villain Foil Collection. It will only be available as part of this campaign and then the rest sold at conventions and such. When that print run is all sold, it will not be reprinted.
All that said, we know that many of you want foil oversized villain cards for Vengeance/Villains of the Multiverse/OblivAeon. Our plan has been to make a pack of those later, once everything is released, and have that pack not be part of this campaign. However, we have heard a good deal of demand for such a pack, but we’d like to know just how much demand there is. Now is the time for your voice to be heard! We’d like as many of you Sentinels as possible to fill out this survey. It will help us decide what to do next.
MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THIS UPDATE: Please fill out this survey!
Moving on!
Can you handle it?!
Another subject that has raised some questions is that this is, by far, the biggest Kickstarter we’ve ever done. With a week left to go, we have almost eight thousand backers and have raised well over a million dollars. What are we going to do? Do we have the space and the staff to handle such a massive print run of so many products?
Absolutely. Let’s head into the warehouse:
From here, you can see from the GTG offices down into the first aisle of the.
GTG warehouse. Here’s a better shot of that aisle:
Here’s the other major aisle:
But that’s not all! Last year, we added an entire secondary warehouse!
We haven’t put full pallet racking in that warehouse yet, as we haven’t needed it, but we can easily add significantly more vertical space. On the way back into the main warehouse, you can see a few pallets ready to receive more product:
We're going to need a ton more pallets first thing next year!
At the end of those aisles, we have our packing and shipping center, featuring a red and white box packing robot and a green pallet wrapping robot. We love our robots!
On the left side of that photo, you can see the top of Mario, our friendly forklift! Mario is the sidekick of our Warehouse Manager Jodie.
Meet Mario!
Everything that comes into our warehouse has to come through a container-height dock door. Fortunately, we happen to have three of those:
And that’s not even everything! Just some of the most exciting parts. And we have an awesome staff to make sure that everything goes on quickly and accurately. A shipout of this size will ensure that we are “all hands on deck” once the cargo containers of products arrive here at the GTG HQ.
We wanted to give you a bit of a warehouse tour, just so you could be confident in our ability to handle a Kickstarter of these proportions.
Additionally, there has been a lot of demand for our three major out-of-print products: the Rook City/Infernal Relics, Shattered Timelines, and Vengeance expansions. Sadly, all three are currently out of print. However! Because of this Kickstarter, we will be able to have all Sentinels of the Multiverse products back in stock in time for Gen Con! That way, all backers at the “Entire Multiverse” and “Everything Everer” levels will get their back rewards on time if not early, and we’ll be able to make our Fifth Anniversary Gen Con the best it can be!
Logistics aside, where is the story of Sentinel Comics going?
Sentinel Comics: The Roleplaying Game
The other frequent request we have heard is for a compendium of the storylines and plots of the Multiverse. That is not the sort of product for this campaign - we are currently focused on finishing the story of the Multiverse strongly. However, we are eager to do far more storytelling in the upcoming Sentinel Comics RPG: both answering questions of what has happened AND going forward with new stories after OblivAeon.
Here to talk more about the Sentinels Comics RPG is the crew from Critical-Hits! Cam Banks, Dave Chalker, and Philippe Ménard are the design team for the Sentinel Comics RPG, and they have a lot to say about the game:
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As the OblivAeon Kickstarter reaches its end, marking the finale of the Sentinels of the Multiverse card game, we wanted to talk to you a bit about what’s next.
Wait, what’s next? Isn’t OblivAeon the end for our heroes?
Not quite. You probably already know there’s a future in Sentinel Comics thanks to the Sentinels Tactics game line. But that’s not all, because right after OblivAeon, there will be the Sentinel Comics Roleplaying Game.
What is the Sentinel Comics RPG?
Working closely with Christopher and the rest of the Greater Than Games crew, we have designed a new RPG system specifically fit for the Sentinel Comics universe. While there are plenty of great RPG systems out there (including many superhero ones), we wanted to design something that best showcased the aesthetics and feeling of Sentinel Comics. We decided to build a system from scratch rather than trying to adapt an existing one. Given our experience at Critical-Hits working with licensed properties like Marvel Comics and Firefly, we felt this was the best option.
That said, no system is created entirely in a vacuum, and we’ve taken strong inspiration from a lot of our favorite contemporary RPGs, including Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, Fate, Apocalypse World, 13th Age, and Dungeons & Dragons. If those names aren’t familiar to you, don’t worry! We’ll teach you everything you need to know in the manual.
How does it work?
In the Sentinel Comics RPG, players take the role of a superhero, either an existing one from the Sentinel Comics universe or one of your own creation. One person takes the role of the Gamemaster, providing challenges and opposition for the heroes. You all work together to create your own superheroic stories in the Sentinel Comics setting (or one of your own creation, or a mix of both!)
When it’s time for your hero to attempt something amazing, you get to describe what your hero is doing. You then assemble a dice pool of three dice based on your superpowers, training or background, and the situation the hero is in. Based on what the action is, you’ll often look at the middle-rolling die of the three, and see how successful it is. If it’s an attack, the number you rolled might knock out a minion in one punch or wear down the villain. If you’re boosting one of your fellow teammates it’ll provide a bonus to them based on your roll, or hinder an opponent instead. Or you might try heroically overcoming a challenge, where your roll will tell you if you succeeded, failed, and if there’s any kind of extra consequence or bonus as a result.
Heroes also have abilities that let them use different dice for certain actions, such as Haka’s mighty Crush ability that uses the highest-rolling die when brawling in melee. Other abilities let the heroes do extraordinary things, like Tachyon using her Rapid Recon to reroll her dice, or Unity temporarily assembling a robotic minion to help.
Heroes have principles that guide what they do in certain situations. They establish truths about who they are, like how The Wraith is an expert at solving mysteries and locked doors are never an obstacle to her. These principles also provide opportunities for heroes to gain Spotlight Moments, which are used to highlight which comic issues (the term for a single session of the game) are influential to the character’s story. Once a hero has appeared in enough issues, their adventures are collected into a Trade Paperback, closing out a story arc and allowing players to adjust and advance their hero based on the events of the storyline. Maybe the hero’s powers changed, maybe they got a sidekick, or maybe their guiding principles shift.
Can you make your own hero?
Yes! The Sentinel Comics RPG will feature a robust character creation system. Create your own hero from scratch, whether you have the start of an idea, or want the dice to help guide your decisions. You can even take an existing hero and adjust them to your style to create a spinoff hero or a variant version from another timeline.
Can you also play the heroes from the card game?
Yep. There’s still plenty of details to work out, but our current plan is to eventually provide ready-to-go stats for every hero in the Sentinel Comics universe. It’s up to you and the Gamemaster if you want to play a game of all existing heroes, all new heroes, or existing heroes alongside new heroes.
What if I’m not a roleplaying gamer?
We’re hoping that Sentinels fans will check out the RPG, even if they’ve never played an RPG before. However, each book in the game is going to be packed with Sentinel Comics story, lore, and background, all masterminded by Christopher himself. So even if you never roll a d8, there still will be plenty of material to read for Sentinels fans.
And if you are new to RPGs, we’re trying to make the game easy enough for new RPG players to pick up, with enough depth for existing RPG gamers to keep their interests through many sessions - or issues - of play.
What’s first for the Sentinel Comics RPG?
The first project will be a Starter Box, designed to introduce the RPG. It’ll contain stats for the Freedom Five (plus intern Unity) as they take on Baron Blade in a complete multi-session story across multiple familiar environments and foil his latest nefarious scheme. The Starter Box will teach the game to the players and gamemaster and tell a complete story, and can serve as the springboard for an extended game.
Shortly after that, we’re going to have a full core rulebook that will contain more detailed rules, full character guide, more characters, villains, environments, and much more. And then if all goes well, further books will provide more options and detail bigger corners of the Sentinel Comics universe.
In the meantime, we’ll have demos available at different conventions where Greater Than Games is appearing. There will definitely be lots of demos at Gen Con.
Many details are still being worked out and subject to change, so nothing written here is set in ink yet. But we hope that gives you enough information to see what’s next for after OblivAeon...
...assuming the multiverse isn’t destroyed before then.
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Thanks, team! Cam, Dave, and Phil are some of the most talented, creative, and hard-working designers I’ve met, and we’re thrilled to have them onboard to make the Sentinel Comics RPG the best game it can be!
So! To sum up, three major things in this update:
Please fill out this survey to let us know what you want.
We are confident in our ability to handle a campaign of this size, and you should be, too!
The Sentinel Comics RPG is going to be AWESOME!
If you have any questions about any of those three points (or anything else!), feel free to join in on today’s art stream on our Twitch channel. I’ll be there answering questions while working on Scion files! It’ll be a great time.
And, as always, have fun saving the Multiverse!
OVER ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!
about 8 years ago
– Fri, Mar 04, 2016 at 07:56:07 AM
Wow.
One million dollars?
Just, wow. When Adam and Paul and I started this company and made this game, we hoped we would “make it”. For us, “making it” was surviving our first couple years. It was getting enough money to print the game. It was being creative enough to come up with all the stuff and passionate enough to keep creating, even when the going got tough or people didn’t like what we did.
At the end of every year since this company started, we look at each other and have a moment of, “Huh. Wow. We really made it, didn’t we?” We’re still shocked that there’s an audience for the things we want to do, and we strive to keep making the things that you all want to see, while still staying true to what we set out to make.
This campaign has blown all of that away.
But enough of my yammering on! I'm back on land again and ready to talk about the final stretch goal.
First, we have the hero team that started it all:
Legacy
As team leader, Paul Parsons has seen his team go through a lot. They’ve grown, become closer, seen the worst of time and the worst of space, and somehow survived it all.
Legacy is proud of the Freedom Five, and for what they bring to America, the rest of the world, and the Multiverse.
Bunker
Lt. Tyler Vance has been pulled in multiple directions lately. The U.S. military was revealed to be capturing and training/reprogramming super-powered individuals AND stocking items of great power. Lt. Vance’s duty to his superior officers were running in direct conflict with his duty to his team. But the arrival of OblivAeon made everything much clearer.
Ultimately, the petty squabbles of those seeking to gain power cannot win over the needs of the innocent, let alone the needs of all existence. Bunker knows his duty is to protect those who cannot protect themselves, so that is what he does. After all, he’s a member of the Freedom Five.
Tachyon
When Dr. Meredith Stinson originally joined the Freedom Four, she did so to help fund research at her lab. She was initially much more interested in science and research. She would not have hypothesized that time with a team of heroes would change her as much as it did.
Now, Tachyon is even more well known for her heroism than she is for her brilliant mind. No matter - she still gets plenty of time in the lab, and her role with the Freedom Five has given her unique opportunities to study all manner of seemingly impossible phenomena throughout the Multiverse.
The Wraith
Maia Montgomery is overworked and overpaid. That second part should be some small comfort, but she has most of her excess funds funneled to the Freedom Five in various convoluted ways. Even still, once in a while, she’ll use that money to come up with a new outfit and some exciting new gadgets.
As her time with the Freedom Five has taken her out of the shadows and into public light as a hero, she’s upgraded her look and kit many times. What’s the point of being The Wraith if you can’t look good doing it? While still maintaining a secret identity, that is.
Absolute Zero
Ryan Frost thought this “hero” business was a bunch of nonsense. If he hadn’t been so abysmally bored, he would have just stayed in the cryo-chamber and goofed around on the internet for the rest of his frigid life. He certainly didn’t plan on staying around any longer than necessary.
But things have rarely gone how Frost thought they would. And now, Absolute Zero is one of the most resolute members of the Freedom Five. No matter how dangerous the foe or how hopeless the situation, he soldiers on, knowing that he has seen worse.
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The Freedom Five has been our flagship team since we started this process, with Baron Blade as our flagship villain. Bringing Baron Blade back as Luminary in this expansion meant we really wanted another go at the Freedom Five, showing them in a way we never have before - as a team, all in uniform, with more synergies than ever before. Completing the stretch goals for this campaign by seeing the Freedom Five as the team we always knew they could be is a good sign of the dream-come-true that Sentinels of the Multiverse is for all of us.
However, we do have another variant card as well.
Ra: Setting Sun
After trading his spirit for another chance as a defender of the physical realm, Ra returned as the Horus of Two Horizons. He knew his time walking the earth was now limited, but he could not bear to watch the destruction of all he claimed as under his protection.
Now, OblivAeon has come, and once again, Ra must put everything on the line.
Ra has called old foes to his side, and makes the first successful assault on OblivAeon. He may pay the ultimate price for his actions, but the heat of his flame will never be extinguished.
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So! Those are the six variant cards! However, there are a few more things to cover in this update!
A New Add-On
When we launched this campaign, we only had one Add-On: the $1 art print pack. Now, we're adding a second: the Foil Oversized Villain Collection!
This is a set of all of the villains ever who do not come with their own oversized cards, including several variants! It's the same content (with minor errata on one card) as the Villain Oversized Pack that we recently printed. However, the Foil Oversized Villain Collection comes in a sweet box with a magnetic closure (pictured above) and all of the cards feature foil art!
The Foil Oversized Villain Collection will retail for $29.95 (or more, depending on certain production factors), so we're making it a $29 add-on. If you want one and are not backing at the "Entire Multiverse" or "Everything Ever-er" level (as those two levels will get the Foil Oversized Villain Collection for free!), just add $29 to your pledge! We'll iron out the add-on details in the backer survey we send out before the end of March.
Collection and Case Upgrades
As part of making the Foil Oversized Villain Collection, we looked into improving the exterior of that product, as well as the 5th Anniversary Foil Hero Collection and the Ultimate Collector's Case. And we have been successful!
All three of those products will feature spot-UV and spot-foil printing, making them all look incredible. We're excited about what that means for the final products. As soon as we have any sort of production samples, we'll certainly share them here.
One last thing!
Shipping Update
With the success of this campaign, we'll be able to make sure that any Sentinels of the Multiverse products that are currently out of stock will be back in stock before Gen Con. As a result, we are going to ship all of the products not unique to this campaign at the same time we ship the 5th Anniversary Foil Hero Collection! This means that all backers at the "Entire Multiverse" and "Everything Ever-er" levels will get the bulk of their rewards (everything that isn't a new product) sometime in July or August! Additionally, we're putting the newly announced Foil Oversized Villain Collection into production ASAP, so it will be shipped out at the same time as the 5th Anniversary Foil Hero Collection, so those will be shipped out in July/August as well!
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And with that, my dear Sentinels, we wrap up all of the Stretch Goals for the Sentinels of the Multiverse: OblivAeon campaign.
Be the hero we all know you can be. Save the Multiverse.
Second Update! More heroes and info on the Ultimate Collector's Case!
about 8 years ago
– Tue, Mar 01, 2016 at 01:19:02 AM
Good afternoon, Sentinels!
We just passed the 24 hour mark of this Kickstarter, and what a 24 hours it has been! In under an hour yesterday, you blew through all of our published Stretch Goals, so we posted a new Stretch Goal chart that went all the way up to a million dollars, rather than just $100k. And this is where we were at 24 hours precisely:
Holy cats. You’re all amazing. And in the three hours since then, we’ve gained almost two hundred more backers for another approximately $28k of funding. Wow!
Time for a very-large-(but-slightly-smaller-than-yesterday’s-update) update! It includes:
Information about video game badges
Unlocked Stretch Goals
The Ultimate Collector’s Case
A Kickstarter worth checking out
Let’s dig in!
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First off, several of you noticed that the Stretch Goal chart mentions Sentinels of the Multiverse Video Game Badges at the $50k level, but that I didn’t talk about that in yesterday’s update. These things are all true! That update had so many story and art and game things that I wanted to make sure we could put the news on these video game badges more prominently at the top of today’s update, so here we are!
All backers of this Kickstarter - including those just backing for a dollar - will get access to an exclusive multiplayer badge for use in the video game! There will be more instructions about how to claim this reward sent out with backer surveys when the Kickstarter ends. Just know that to claim this reward, you must own Sentinels of the Multiverse: The Video Game when you fill out your survey!
Note: this is the only “Kickstarter exclusive” stretch goal, and it is also the only stretch goal that backers at the $1 pledge level will receive.
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Now on to the unlocked stretch goals! Here’s what the chart looks like now:
So, just like yesterday, first you all need to meet the other two heroes who will be in the Sentinels of the Multiverse: OblivAeon game!
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In her advanced age, Maria Helena de Falcon has shed most of the names and all of the crew she acquired as she sailed the timelines. Time is a fickle sea - it gave her much, but when it came time to take, she barely survived the temporal Black Spot.
La Comodora has sailed to the end of time and seen the lack of a future beyond OblivAeon. She returns to this time which vexed her younger self so thoroughly. She wears a time-locked outfit that prevents time from taking more from her than it already has. Hopefully, she can use her knowledge of the timelines and her technology from times and places beyond the scope of this reality to combat this ultimate destroyer of all.
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When Tarogath - the would-be decimator of planet Earth - was reclaimed by the Terminarch Jansa Vi Dero, he wept. He knew that the destruction of Earth was now unavoidable. All of his magical power and Endling technology could not prevent the future.
What he did not know was that the planet he tried to save was to be a nexus of all reality. Jansa observed the ripples in spacetime and read the ending of all. She could not interfere - that was not her way. But Tarogath had already proved a willingness to bend the ways of the Endlings.
Now, Tarogath has returned to Earth with Jansa’s blessing. Lifeline joins his formidable command of mystical energy and ley-lines with power from the Enclave of the Endlings in order to oppose OblivAeon and prevent the destruction of all that is.
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To Maria Helena Teresa Fafila Servanda Jimena Mansuara Paterna Domenga Gelvira Placia Sendina Belita Eufemia Columba Gontina Aldonza Mafalda Cristina Tegrida de Falcon’s reckoning, it has been a long time since she first started sailing the timelines. The passage of time is strange on those seas, though. However, time has come for the villain known as La Capitán.
She could not be within time but not part of time for long. Can La Comodora survive her own origin story?
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The villain-turned-hero Lifeline is the last surviving member of a race of ley-line manipulators. Like the rest of his people, he can detect and pull on the ley-lines of reality, producing impressive magical effects. However, this power is not enough in the face of ultimate destruction. Tarogath must find a more primal source of power…
Harnessing the life energy of living creatures and binding it to the power of elemental ley-lines, Lifeline steps purposefully into his role as blood mage and savior. Hopefully, the power will be enough.
The Xtreme Prime Wardens have joined in the fight against OblivAeon!
Unlocking this stretch goal means 5 new promo variant hero character cards, each with badass 90s-comics style costumes and attitude!
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Last (for this update) but not least, we have the $500k Stretch Goal.
The team known as the Southwest Sentinels were in trouble. Chokepoint had blindsided them in their headquarters in Fort Adamant. It was a rough fight. The fact that the heroes were getting no military support in this fight, and that no alarms had been set off by Chokepoint’s entirely unstealthy arrival was not immediately concerning to them, but the Southwest Sentinels began to realize things were not quite what they had assumed.
They fled through the military installation, narrowly dodging the attacks from Chokepoint. As they entered the lower levels, Chokepoint tore through a wall before them, and then was incapacitated by a blast of power. The wall she had just destroyed housed a secret room the heroes had never seen before. In that room were four large glowing crystals, each radiating a different spectrum of energy.
Behind them, Chokepoint groaned and began struggling to her feet. She would be back at full power in no time - the heroes had a choice to make. And they choose survival.
Now, Doctor Medico, Mainstay, The Idealist, and Writhe harness the power of Oblivion Shards and fight against the end of all things. They hold back the Void when no one else can.
Sentinels of the Multiverse: Void Guard is a box set of four hero characters, complete with their own hero character cards and decks. It will be sent to every Kickstarter backer that is backing a pledge level higher than $1.
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Whew! That was a lot of stuff! Now, let's look at some really awesome pictures of the Ultimate Collector’s Case!
The hero/villain/environment complexity and difficulty chart will be printed on the inside of the top flap, so you'll have easy access to that information when picking your super-powered conflict!
Also, the dividers will be made out of a rigid material that holds up to use much better. (They will either be plastic or sturdy greyboard - still waiting on quotes for both from our printer!)
How awesome is that?! We're very excited about this case.
We hope to get it into distribution after the Kickstarter, but there's no way to guarantee that any gaming stores will want to pick up an empty box, so this Kickstarter is the surest way to get the Ultimate Collector's Case.
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Finally, there are lots of great Kickstarters happening right now. One of them is ending very soon! Super game designer Dave Chalker (a fantastic guy who also is one of the designers of the upcoming Sentinel Comics Roleplaying Game) has designed a mischievous game of dice drafting and stealing: Thief’s Market.
In Dave’s own words: “You are all thieves, splitting up the loot after a successful job. You can take whatever you want from the pile of loot, but if you're too greedy, someone might steal it from you (and make that pile smaller) forcing you to take something else. Then use that loot to purchase items, henchmen, and hideouts from the market, to become the most infamous thief.”
An Art Update!
about 8 years ago
– Mon, Feb 29, 2016 at 04:07:05 PM
Greetings awesome Kickstarter backers!
As you know, Christopher is out of the office this week, but we didn't want to let you go that long without an update. Fortunately, Adam is here drawing a bunch of stuff, so we thought it would be a great time for an art update!
First up, we have some new hero card arts! Adam is re-drawing the art for every single hero character card in the game for inclusion in the 5th Anniversary Foil Hero Collection. Here are some comparisons between the original art and the new stuff!
G.I. Bunker
Freedom Six Wraith
Fanatic
Pretty cool, huh?
Second, we've been asked a few times if the incapacitated sides of the hero character cards will have new art in the 5th Anniversary Foil Hero Collection. The answer is yes! In fact, some new incapacitated art will reveal previously unseen story elements.
Live Art Streams
Finally, for those of you who might have missed them, the recordings of Adam's Friday Art Streams are now on our YouTube channel. We just have the real time recordings now, but we'll be uploading speed drawing versions shortly.
And be sure to join us every week during the campaign for more live drawing on our Twitch channel Fridays at Noon (CT)!
OblivAeon Gameplay Update!
about 8 years ago
– Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 09:55:01 PM
Good morning, Sentinels.
I hope you’re all doing well. We’re doing great here, even with the giant pile of work - it happens to be work we love!
This update is going to dig into the details of what all comes in the Sentinels of the Multiverse: OblivAeon box, and how the OblivAeon event plays. Not going to be much in the way of exciting graphics as this is all stuff still in development, but as we do have pictures of such things we’ll be posting updates with all that stuff, even after the Kickstarter ends.
Ready? Here we go.
Components
Oversized Villain Character Cards:
2 for OblivAeon (more on that in the “Gameplay” section)
10 different Scions (originally, it was five, but then we brought more in)*
Decks:
25 card OblivAeon Deck
25 card Aeon Men Deck
25 card Scion Deck
25 card Mission Deck (this was originally 10 cards, but we added 15 more because we had additional awesome ideas)*
Other:
5 different OblivAeon Shield cards (was originally just one - decided to expand it for more variety)*
hero tokens to indicate hero location
tokens to indicate Battle Zones
*The three sections of the game we expanded are sort of like Stretch Goals - you have all inspired us to make this the best game we can. Of course, when we sit down to make a game, we always want to do our best, but thousands of backers and hundreds of thousands of dollars is a good kick in the pants to go above and beyond. You can be confident that if there is any little (or big) thing we can do to make Sentinels of the Multiverse: OblivAeon a better product, we will.
So, those are just the components for the OblivAeon event section of the game. There are also five hero character cards and 40 card decks (Luminary, The Harpy, Akash’Thriya, La Comodora, and Lifeline) and two 15 card environment decks (Fort Adamant and the Nexus of the Void). The game will also include hero tokens, damage type tokens, and a couple other tokens specific to decks. And, of course, a rulebook and the Freedom Five Annual #30 comic book you all unlocked right away!
Gameplay
At the start of the game, you put the first OblivAeon character card in a normal villain area, but then things swiftly leave the “normal” set-up rules. Right off the bat, we have to establish Battle Zones. The “normal” villain play area that we’ve established and the corresponding environment becomes the first Battle Zone. At the other end of the table, we create the second Battle Zone, complete with its own villain play area and environment play area!
For a 3 player game, the first player takes their turn between the first and second Battle Zone turns, then the second and third players take their turns between the second and first Battle Zone turns.
For a 4 player game, the first and second players take their turns between the first and second Battle Zone turns, then the third and fourth players take their turns between the second and first Battle Zone turns.
For a 5 player game, the first and second players take their turn between the first and second Battle Zone turns, then the third, fourth, and fifth players take their turns between the second and first Battle Zone turns.
There will be an explanatory graphic in the rulebook that will be much clearer than this written section!
So we’ve got three notable areas that we’re not used to from regular Sentinels of the Multiverse gameplay: the first and second Battle Zone, and the Deck Area. The Deck Area only exists to keep you from having to move piles of cards around. When OblivAeon or a Scion moves from one Battle Zone to another, you don’t have to also more their decks and trash piles - those stay in the Deck Area.
To better explain things, here’s the “Setup” text of the first OblivAeon villain character card:
“SETUP:
Put this this card in the first Battle Zone as shown in the OblivAeon rulebook, “The End Has Come” side up.
Shuffle and place the OblivAeon, Scion, and Aeon Men decks and the Scion pile in the Deck Area.
Shuffle two different environment decks separately, and place each deck in one Battle Zone. Shuffle the Mission deck and place it in the second Battle Zone, Mission side up.
Randomly select one of the OblivAeon Shield cards and put it in the first villain play area.
Lastly, place each hero’s token in the first Battle Zone.”
Whew! That’s a lot! Fortunately, on that side, OblivAeon is just making a grand entrance, and will attack anyone hanging out in that Battle Zone for SO MUCH damage. Wait, that’s "fortunately"? Well, the heroes have the ability to skip one of their phases (Play, Power, or Draw) to move their token to the other Battle Zone. The Battle Zone of your hero token indicates which environment you’re fighting in. Unless a card says otherwise, nothing in one Battle Zone can affect the other Battle Zone. So, if a Scion says “Deal each hero target 2 psychic damage”, it can only deal that damage to each hero target in the Battle Zone it is in.
As I mentioned above, OblivAeon has two villain character cards. This means OblivAeon will go through four phases over the course of the game, each behaving differently. Depending on what phase OblivAeon is in, you will have to avoid massive attacks, fend off waves of Aeon Men and Scions, and ultimately take the fight directly to OblivAeon.
Unfortunately, you’re not strong enough to take on OblivAeon. There is good news, however! Those Mission cards I mentioned above. They are double-sided: the “Mission” side explains what you have to do to complete that Mission. When you complete it, you flip the card and get some sort of reward. The card might go into your hand as a one-shot you can play later to great effect. It might go into your play area as a new piece of sweet equipment or a powerful relic. It could even be a mighty ally from an alternate dimension who is eager to join the fight against OblivAeon!
Lingering questions: what’s up with the Aeon Men Deck? Or the Scion pile? Those are all vassals of OblivAeon - the Aeon Men are minions you have seen before who will come forth to fight against the heroes.
The Scion pile is full over oversized villain character cards that will enter the Battle Zones to hinder the heroes and be generally terrifying. They’re very powerful. It will be rare to see more than 2 or 3 over the course of a game, though in Advanced more they come out more quickly. You’ll need to work together and probably even use Mission rewards to take them down on the path to OblivAeon.
I’ve covered the generalities of how the game is set up, and what you can expect to see over the course of the game, but I’ve specifically avoided revealing a lot of things that we want to be surprises when you open the game. Over the course of the campaign, as Adam does more and more of the art, we’ll post updates showing off more Scions, arts from Mission cards, and even art featuring OblivAeon!
If you have questions about OblivAeon, Aeon Men, Scions, Missions, or anything else, I’ll be in Adam’s “drawing stuff” Twitch stream in about three hours at www.twitch.tv/greaterthangames
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Let’s talk about another Kickstarter for a bit!
I was looking around Kickstarter yesterday and I ran across a game that I am seriously excited about! Heartcatchers is a two player game about secrets, deception, and love.
Designer Emma Larkins has done a wonderful job creating a lightweight, fast game that has deep and varied gameplay. It also has adorable art.
Our friend Tim at Brooklyn Indie Games shares some words about the project:
"I've been really excited about two-player games for a long time. I grew up playing chess, and later Go. There's an entirely different kind of meta-game when you're playing against just one other person as opposed to watching the complex strategies of a group dynamic; it's very personal, and it's very intimate. Heartcatchers manages to nail all of those qualities in a fast-playing microgame format. Emma has been superb to work with too, I've been one of the many playtesters for the game throughout the process and it's grown a lot. I also came up with the theme and the basis for the visual style: Adorable heart-monsters set in the visual style of "The Little Prince" as part of a "Heartcatchers" festival. Emma also wrote a piece of short fiction to tell that story in more detail."
“I wanted to create a game with a unique, fun theme that would act as a ‘gateway game’ to bring new players into the fold,” said Heartcatchers creator Emma Larkins. “Also, I love playing games with elements of the unexpected, and knew that had to be in my first game!”
Just so you know, I’ll be out of the country all next week as part of the JoCo Cruise! I’ll be playing Sentinels of the Multiverse and running Sentinel Comics Roleplaying Game events on the high-seas! (If such a thing sounds interesting to you, definitely check out the info on JoCo Cruise 2017!) We will still have updates next week (writing them up this afternoon, in fact!) but they will be posted by the other fine folks here at the GTG Headquarters.
So, be kind to them, be excellent to each other, and keep on saving the Multiverse!
